“Finally got that fly. Of course, I need a new wall now”
Robotech: Return To Macross #32
Academy Comics, Ltd. (May, 1996)
“Storm Warnings”
WRITER: Robert W. Gibson
ARTIST: Dusty Griffin
The storm isn’t the only thing getting worse on Macross Island. One of the secret government agents breaks in and forcefully interrogates one of the Federalist prisoders, forcing Bennington to change the codes back since he thinks they were hacked. Meanwhile, Da Silva tries to convince Lori to appear at an event hosted on the gambling ship, but she turns it down and his insisting gets Rolf steamed. And after an evening with Claudia Virgil notices a letter Lisa’s father sent to her telling his real itinerary before a jealous and drunk Roy gets into a fight with him, further separating Roy and Claudia. It turns out that Virgil is only with Claudia to get such information. What a shock. I am so, so surprised. Oh right, sarcasm is hard in text.
What they got right: Events from the cancelled Academy Blues continue in this story, as Rolf and Lisa join their friends to celebrate their cadet “ranks” and Lisa’s issues with her father’s pushing.
What they got wrong: Of course Virgil is just using Claudia. It’s how this trope usually goes and I hate this trope because nobody does anything different. Plus, Claudia is wrong to be jealous and still comes off bad. What’s worse however is the art. Yes, I’ve complained about Claudia being off-model but the problem here is that this looks more like Griffin didn’t have time to turn in anything more than his rough drafts. I know he’s better than this even back then. It doesn’t help that the word balloons are a mess at times, and that’s only occasionally blamed on the room or lack thereof in the art. I don’t know if Griffin or Gibson is doing the lettering because there’s no credit but somebody messed this up.
Recommendation: The story is good, my trope hatred aside, but the art and lettering is not. With that warning recommended for the story.
BW Media Spotlight 
Sloppiness in a finished product is never good. I see I have some catching up do with features on the site this week. Hey, this Storm Yoshi (imagine that, we have a winter storm named after a cute green dinosaur from Nintendo!) will give me plenty of time to catch up on your site and other reading of books and comics this long weekend.
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After reading issue #16 of Titan’s Robotech, I now realize that Simon Furman is the sole writer on the comic. The original writer who started with it is no longer with the comic. This actually happened in earlier issues. Now I understand why different things are happening such as Roy Fokker’s clone killing TR Edwards and the Invid appearing in issues #15 and 16. Also, Lisa Hayes’ long thought dead boyfriend, Carl, has returned as some type of Invid slayer (think like Absalom Daak, the Dalek slayer). That’s how issue #16 ended with Carl arriving as the Invid slayer.
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